His earlier roles were much more varied. For example, he played an awkward, sensitive gay guy in Velvet Goldmine.

Tobin Bell is becoming a career villain very quickly, and is now almost universally known as Jigsaw. Even in a bit part on an episode of Seinfeld, he manages to be some sort of antagonist.

Michael Biehn gets a lot of roles as intense military types -- a cadet in The Lords of Discipline, a resistance fighter in The Terminator, a Colonial Marine in Aliens, the player avatar in Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and a Navy SEAL in no less than 3 films -- Navy SEALS, The Abyss and The Rock.

Patrick Stewart is almost as known for being Professor Charles Xavier these days as he is for his role on Star Trek: TNG.

At least in movies and on TV, he seems to be typecast for the "good, wise non-action leader" role, especially "good king" - which makes it either very funny when he plays against type (see Jeffrey - snarky, somewhat Camp Gay interior designer and Pink Panther activist) or rather unsettling (The Lion in Winter - still superficially the affable "good king", but the dialogue establishes really quickly that he's actually a selfish, scheming jerk who has taken someone raised almost as an adoptive daughter as his mistress)

The general rule of thumb is that if the film is in a historical, medieval or fantasy setting he'll play one of the good guys... who dies. If its set in modern times he'll generally play one of the bad guys... and usually die.

Charles Bronson was pretty much the ultimate badass. Apparently, this extended to his offscreen life, too: he was a coal miner at the age of 10.

In The Magnificent Seven, Bronson splits wood onscreen, with an axe and everything. Not only is this physically demanding, requiring good coordination, it's so dangerous that no insurance company is likely to ever let a name star do that again.

Steve Buscemi as the paranoid, fast-talking, nervy rodenty guy who is either a snarky, Jerkass, loserish protagonist or a sympathetic, loserish scumbag of a villain/Anti-Villain. Sometimes voice-acts actual rodents.

Or as the guy who gets killed in some horrible way. See also: Leto, Jared

Or as the eccentricly weird guy that often gets injured in Adam Sandler movies.

James "Jimmy" Cagney, far down on the list, but among the first and most severe cases of typecasting in early Hollywood. Since smashing a grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face in The Public Enemy (1931), he will be forever known as the hardass gangster, complete with his own Beam Me Up, Scotty, "You dirty rat..." Cagney started his career as a "hoofer" or dancer in stage musicals, was a teetotaler, spoke fluent yiddish (though a gentile), and was no slouch at judo (put to great use in Blood on the Sun (1945), with one of the most brutal fights ever filmed). Yet none of this erased the tough guy persona he was famous for, even after winning an Oscar for the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). Part of the problem was that Cagney couldn't flash a smile that didn't imply godless bloodlust.

Bruce Campbell has played so many jerks spouting one-liners that most fans don't know what to think when he tries something new.

A large number of Gary Chalk's live action roles has him working for the government. These includes jobs in politics, S.H.I.E.L.D., military and most frequently, a police officer.

Jackie Chan was typecast as a "nice guy" for decades, partly because Jackie aspired to be a positive role model for children. Until 2006's "Rob B Hood", Jackie hadn't played a negative character in over 30 years.

Ironically, he eventually tried to avoid the karate typecast by playing the Every Man who gains the ability to do awesome karate moves. Unfortunately, Jackie Chan becoming Jackie Chan wasn't that much of a movie.

Roy Cheung plays a lot of psychotic Triad gangsters and other villains in Hong Kong movies, to the point that when he played a Shaolin monk in Infernal Affairs, it was seen as Playing Against Type.

It's weird seeing him play a mild-mannered psychic in Babylon 5, especially as he still uses that vaguely creepy voice he uses in all his roles.

The popularity of Steptoe and Son ruined the careers of its stars, Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell. Corbett in particular suffered, having achieved acclaim as a Shakespearean actor before accepting his role in the show, and frequently being described as "Britain's Marlon Brando" early in his career.

Tom Cruise always seems to play a selfish yuppie-type (sometimes he is also somewhat troubled) who eventually gets his comeuppance and learns how to truly love. His typical role is summed up by Rich Hall in this video.

Even stage actors aren't immune to this. Look at John Cullum, playing a cynical, worldwise, southerner and/or father, in Shenandoah (original cast and revival), 1776 (movie), Urinetown, and 110 in the Shade. Ironically, he initially turned down the role of Rutledge because he did not want to play a southerner.

On the other hand, he got to play a psychiatrist who falls in love with the past incarnation of a patient he regresses in the Tony-nominated musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever -- but this was before taking the other roles mentioned.

And a guest spot on Monk as Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck. Interestingly enough, Curry was the second of three actors to play the part: Adam Arkin was the Whale in his first appearance, then Curry for one episode, and in the character's final episode, it was Ray Porter in the suit.

Vincent D'Onofrio, after Full Metal Jacket, generally plays a big, scary guy. In Men in Black, he plays a perfectly sane (wife-beating redneck) farmer who gets eaten and his skin worn by a creepy bug alien about sixty seconds into his first scene. Even on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Bobby Goren is impliedly a little off. Which is sad, because he's genuinely a good actor.

The only constant between Johnny Depp's roles is that, with the exception of Pirates of the Caribbean (being a sequel), he hasn't done the same kind of character twice. And in that strange way, audiences have come to expect him to just be that kind of offbeat character.

He's done plenty of quirky man-child characters, though the quirks tend to shift quite a bit from movie to movie.

Leonardo DiCaprio is an interesting example. After his Star-Making Role in Titanic, media pundits almost unanimously predicted that Leo would be another flash-in-the pan celebrity, typecast as a Bishonenteenage heart-throb before forever vanishing from the limelight after hitting 35. Unusually, he was Genre Savvy enough to move away from pretty boy roles into something grittier and started a very fruitful creative partnership with Martin Scorsese. Ironically, this led Di Caprio to being typecast in crime and/or business dramas, Scorsese's signature genre, where he usually plays intense, morally ambiguous types. Leo's lead role in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Inception was seen as an attempt at broadening his acting range... right until it turned out he was playing an intense, morally ambiguous mind thief.

In the 1960s and 70s there was the great Anton Diffring, who became pretty much the archetypal sinister German officer. For a period during the 1960s no self-respecting WWII film was complete without an icy glare or cold and calculating remark courtesy of Herr Diffring.

Jason Dolley, a member of the Disney Channel repertory, is typecast as two different types of characters: Either an unlucky, unappreciated loser who gets the girl in the end (in his three Disney Channel original movies: Read It and Weep, Minutemen, and Hatching Pete): or a moronic, slacker musician (in his two Disney Channel sitcoms, Cory in The House and Good Luck Charlie).

He's finally due to play a moronic, slacker musician in a DCOM for a change, when the Good Luck Charlie movie is released.

Which is strange, because he started off as the sweetest guy ever, Bill in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (still a Woobie!). It seems 2 years ago, finally, he was able to play someone who wasn't evil in any way, shape or form in the Halloween remake as the Sheriff of the town, and probably the nicest guy in the movie.

(Local prostitutes are giggling while being "examined" by the doctor.)

"Doc Cochran": When you laugh, you leak piss.

His typecasting is Lampshaded in Urban Legend, where he plays a scary, stuttering gas station attendant. He runs up to a girl getting gas trying to yell something, but he Can't Spit It Out. She shakes him off and drives away in her car, assuming he was trying to attack and/or rape her. After she's out of earshot, he finally manages to shout "SOMEONE'S IN THE BACK SEAT!" Much later in the movie, he's mentioned on the news as a suspect in the murders.

Then, of course, Haley nailed an Elm Street audition of his own years later... which resulted in him playing another (presumably) smelly psychopath.

With his recent Charlie Chaplin-esque turn in the film Louis, don't count Haley out just yet.

When he was much younger, Clint Eastwood was known for tough cowboy or cop roles.

When he was younger? Did it ever cross your mind that Harry Callahan grew old and changed his named to Walter Kowalski? Its incredibly interesting to note that he directed that movie. He actually typecast himself.

He also cast himself in Unforgiven, where he plays an older version of his tough cowboy character. Clint likes to do this - and he knows what he's doing.

Now he's just known for playing "the character with the gravely voice".

Possibly the only exception is Every Which Way But Loose and its sequel Any Which Way You Can, which were off-beat comedies. Though even then his character was tough guy trucker who dabbles in bare-knuckle fighting.

Sam Elliott, please pick up the white courtesy phone. A movie needs a wise, grizzled cowboy. Parodied with his role in The Big Lebowski.

R. Lee Ermey was a Drill Sergeant Nasty during the Vietnam war. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is only a slight exaggeration of the way he, and most other drill sergeants, actually behaved at that time. Modern drill instructors are much less over-the-top than back then.

Ermey has played an evangelist at least twice: once in Fletch Lives, and again in an episode of The X-Files.

Name a Dennis Farina role that wasn't a cop or a mobster. We're waiting. (Justified in that, as an 18-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, Farina knows what he's doing in those roles.)

He played a soldier in Saving Private Ryan. Granted, it was a very brief role, and wasn't particularly different from his cop roles.

The Luke Skywalker image probably wasn't lessened by him effectively reprising the role in Wing Commander III and IV, as Colonel Christopher Blair. Particularly not when you consider how to win WC3.

Jon Heder. Need the tall, gangly nerd who talk with a strange speech pattern to rival Shatner? Look no further.

To the point that literally every role he's ever played is just Napoleon Dynamite to some degree. Gosh!

Take the Italian duo of actors, better known with the Stage Names of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, made famous by spaghetti-westerns and Bash Brothers movies. While the former has found some variation in his career, like playing a live-action Lucky Luke and, currently, a detective priest in a Italian TV Series, the latter (recently turned 80) is stll anchored to the characters he did in his movies -- see this commercial.

Incidentally, Samuel L. Jackson apparently had trouble not cursing for one movie who was trying to keep a PG-13 rating. They were talking about it in the extras on the DVD.

Far more than the swearing alone, Samuel L. Jackson has simply been typecast ever since Pulp Fiction as a Badass Motherfucker. Before that movie, he played a variety of small roles. Variety as in actually varied.

Speaking of Psycho, the original Norman Bates - Anthony Perkins - faced typecasting twice. Prior to Psycho, Perkins seemed to be making a career playing the tall-and-gangly, boyishly charming male ingenue-like characters. After Psycho, he ended up playing creepy weirdos/psychopaths a majority of the time.

German actor Thomas Kretschmann seems to be hopelessly typecast in Nazi roles. The Pianist and Valkyrie, to name just a few. On the plus side, he's usually a sympathetic Nazi.

On the Jimmy Kimmel Show he stated he's been typecast more as a Captain than a Nazi (though this is probably due to him playing quite a number of Nazi Captains).

This is further added by the fact that after being known for playing the role of Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, YouTube users would sometimes make references to his character ("FEGELEIN FEGELEIN FEGELEIN!!!") on almost every video that he appeared on.

Shia LaBeouf is the young every-dude in sci-fi/action films produced by Steven Spielberg.

Christopher Lee's sepulchral tones have made him a career out of playing villains. Though to be fair, he's well-suited for it, with his razor-thin build, dark eyes, towering height, and powerful deep voice.

Somewhat going against type, he plays Death in the TV adaptation of the first two Discworld novels.

Yeah, most of his roles were somewhat Dracula-like villains, even when a film wasn't supernatural. This was so much the case that his few good guy roles seem to have been intended in part to surprise the viewers in movies such as The Black Cat (1934). His favorite role was in Ninotchka, where he finally had a romantic role.

Michael Madsen (aka Mr. Blonde) as the ultimate gangster/psycho/both. Interestingly this is used by filmmakers either to create a certain feeling (in Donnie Brasco, I'm not sure we'd be so reluctant to trust Sonny Black in the first half of the movie if he was played by someone else) or to confound our expectations (in Kill Bill, the assassin played by Michael Madsen actually turns out to be a repentant, down-and-out Punch Clock Villain who gets Eviler Than Thoued by Elle Driver.

Actually used amusingly in the War of the Worlds parody bits of the Scary Movie franchise. When the guy offering the heroines shelter pulls down his hood and reveals his face, you know he's a nutcase before he's done anything because it's Michael Madsen.

In recent years, he's been playing American generals and agents in crappy Russian action movies. Why, would you ask?

Walken's gone on record of never turning down a role, mostly because he wants to try anything. While the roles offered tend to be a bit more odd, it did land him his revival from Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice.

Huge exception for Gary Oldman: the adorably clueless Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Considering the fact that both lead actors tend to be typecast as creepy villains, the following exchange from said movie becomes particularly awesome:

When he's not outright evil, he still tends to be a Bunny Ears Lawyer, with having a arrogant jerkass attitude being the Bunny Ears.

John Simm is the man to go to when you want angst. Up until his late thirties, practically all the roles he played were those of cocky, broody, bratty young men (The Lakes, Human Traffic, Cracker). When he isn't playing angsty Northeners (most notably in Life On Mars), he's playing angsty 17th century mercenaries (The Devil's Whore) or angsty 19th century Russian axe mudrerers (Crime and Punishment) or angsty Danish princes (Hamlet) or angsty reporters (State of Play, Sex Traffic). He only breaks out of the angst if he gets to play an over-the-top villain (Caligula, The Master). Fitting for a guy who's frighteningly convincing when he cries.

Since Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis has been known for playing nerdy characters. According to some sources, he got tired of being typecast, which is why he's been in semi-retirement since 1997. His primary reason for retirement was because he needed to raise his kids.

Leslie Nielsen is an interesting case in that his style never changed, but his image did a 180 degree turn: Pre-Airplane! he was the stern authority figure, but post-Airplane!!: bumbling slapstick idiot. This, of course, because the latter always hinged on him delivering completely, outrageously absurd dialogue with a perfectly straight face.

Awesomely subverted with Creepshow, where he just plays an evil bastard... although it is over the top.

The last guy that tried to type cast Chuck Norris- oh, well, never mind.

To put a little spin on his typecast roles, Scent of a Woman has him played a blind retired war veteran.

Christopher Mc Donald playing a smarmy Jerkass character.

When Josh Peck was still fat, he was known for playing the nerdy, socially akward goofball kid role.

Ron Perlman is usually cast as Man in a Really Good Monster Costume With None of His Lines Dubbed Over.

Which is a damned shame as his role as Vincent demonstrated that he is more than capable of expressing subtle emotions and doesn't need to always be the Heavy.

Even as the Heavy, his performance as One showed subtle emotions with no monster costume and none of his lines dubbed over even though he doesn't speak French.

It wasn't until Hellboy that he was able to play a lead character in a major movie, usually he is a smaller character and under so much makeup you almost can't recognize him. He's one of those actors that everyone respects, at least those who have heard of him.

Although he managed to avert this in With Honors as the still crazy, but charismatic and educated bum Simon B. Wilder. And of course, his performance as Vinny in "My Cousin Vinny" where he was he wasn't crazy. Though it should be noted that he was still a snarky smart ass in both films.

Michael Imperioli also came to fame playing gangsters, particularly Christopher Moltisanti. Which is funny, considering that most of his roles since have been police detectives.

Jeremy Piven is always the talkative jerk/drunk who spouts off asshole lines for no good reason.

When Elvis Presley appeared in movies throughout the 50's and 60's most of them were as the happy-go-lucky guy in musical comedies such as Live A Little, Love A LittleKissin' Cousins and Stay Away Joe. Although he did play against type in a Clint Eastwood-style western called Charro!.

George Reeves, famous for his role of Superman in the 1950s live-action television show, couldn't get himself any serious work, despite many attempts to break that mold. His dead-end career has been one of many theories as to why he shot himself in the head.

According to rumor, he gained a role in the 1953 film From Here To Eternity but his part was cut back when audiences, associating him with Superman, chuckled whenever he appeared on-screen. However Fred Zinnemann, the director, insists that this is not true.

Andrew J. Robinson made his film debut as the baby-faced serial killer Scorpio in Dirty Harry. He was so associated with the role that, despite winning an Emmy as the lead on Ryans Hope, he was recast after two seasons because they didn't want someone noted for playing a serial killer as a sympathetic lead. He went on to play a whole string of psychotic killers in films like Hellblazer and Childs Play 3, until he finally got to play one of the good guys: former assassin and torturer Elim Garak in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Edward G. Robinson, before he was known as the vocal inspiration for The Simpsons character Chief Wiggum, was famous for playing gangster Rico in the unflinchingly violent Little Caesar (1931). In his private life, Robinson was an enthusiastic art collector who hated guns -- in fact, when firing blanks on the movie set, he had to tape his eyes open to keep from blinking in horror.

Tim Roth usually plays thugs/murderers/convicts/all of the above at the same time. And he tends to die violent deaths.

Adam Sandler frequently plays the Jerk with a Heart of Gold, is Jewish, just like him. Heck, he rarely even changes his hair. He also likes to have weird vocal quirks and act like a social retard, yet somehow get the hot female lead.

Sadly, Jerry Seinfeld will never, ever, ever be able to act in any live-action role whatsoever. At least, not until he is past the age of 70. Fortunately, the fact that he is one of the greatest comedy icons of The Nineties doesn't seem to have penetrated his mind, so for ten years he was happy just being a stand-up comedian, as he was before (and within) his prime-time reign.

Michael Shannon seems to always play robotic men who are one stubbed toe away from a psychotic break.

One could summarize Danny Trejo's start in acting thusly: He was training another actor how to fight after having networked his way onto the film in prison, when someone says, "You look like an ex-con! Come over here and play and ex-con." And now, he gets a film showcasing his talents.

The second actor to play Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton, had left to avoid future typecasting, after three seasons and 119 episodes and advised the later Who actor, Peter Davison, to do the same. It had been claimed by The BBC that Christopher Eccleston left the role after one season and 13 episodes to avoid typecasting, but it was later revealed that the BBC never asked him; he did not in fact leave because of being typecast, but rather to be with his father who had gotten sick during the filming. This video seems to indicate otherwise.

Steven Moffat seems to be Mind Raping the Eleventh actor by writing his past roles into the script. The ends may justify the means though, as Moffat rewrites the endings of these plotlines to be healthier than the endings of the actor's past characters.

On the other hand, Christopher Eccleston did get somewhat typecast over the years: either as a troubled, working-class, underdog everyman with some tragic story (Jude, Let Him Have It, Flesh and Blood, Strumpet, Revengers Tragedy, Hillsborough, The Second Coming, Heroes... even the Ninth Doctor fits this, at least stylistically), or as a mostly blockbuster-style villain (Gone in 60 Seconds, G.I. Joe, The Seeker, Elizabeth). The former because of activism and conviction; the latter to be able to take a badly paying theatre role once in a while. Still, when The Agony Booth wrote about his role the admittedly awful movie adaptation of The Dark Is Rising "You're Christopher Eccleston. You're practically synonymous with having a charming and likeable screen presence. There is absolutely nothing scary about you.", the reviewer clearly had never seen 28 Days Later, Shallow Graveor his Jago in Othello.

... which Jean spoofed in the film JCVD. Seagal has yet to show his sense of humor...

Seagal appeared as a parody of his usual roles in The Onion Movie, as the Cock Puncher.

Seagal always plays himself in every role. Always a ex-SEAL/military/CIA/cop agent who unreluctantly finds himself back on the job without. He is also without emotion, merciless and invincible.

Edward Van Sloan basically plays the same vaguely Germanic, gentlemanly, all-knowing doctor who is willing to take on the supernatural in Dracula (1931, as Dr. Van Helsing), Frankenstein (1931, as Dr. Waldman), and The Mummy (1932, as Dr. Müller).

It wasn't particularly imaginative making Reginald VelJohnson's character in Family Matters a policeman, considering he had already played a cop in Die Hard, Turner & Hooch, Ghostbusters, the TV movie One of Her Own...

Whenever Tom Waits appears in a movie, he's usually crazy and/or magical. The crazy magical hobo schtick is actually a large part of his musical persona too.

David Bowie is a similar case of musical and movie personas overlapping as he is usually cast in roles that take advantage of what the trailer for his movie The Hunger (in which he played a vampire) called his "cruel elegance"; whether his character is good or evil, he usually has a mysterious, cool aura. This has served him well in a colorfulvarietyof rolesovertime. He also isn't afraid to play it for comedy or just play against type on occasion -- in the Short FilmJazzin' for Blue Jean he gets to do both!

Elijah Wood is usually typecast as the wide-eyed innocent charming boy, ten years before playing Frodo from Lord of the Rings. But since LOTR he's been desperately trying to avoid typecasting as, well, Frodo (wide-eyed innocent + The Messiah). In fact, he was cast as a tough vandal in Green Street (also known as Hooligans) because he represented corrupted innocence.

It looks like Michael Trucco is being typecast as "the other side of the love triangle". He played that role to Starbuck and Apollo (sort of; their relationship is more complicated, of course), to Leonard and Penny (contributing in their getting together), and is currently playing that role to Beckett and Castle.

Before his recent Oscar nominatedrolesColin Firth every role the poor guy got since Pride and Prejudice has just been a role saying "hey look, this guy was Mr Darcy! Look at him be Mr. Darcy!" Bridget Jones turned this up to eleven, by actually basing his character on Mr. Darcy. In universe, Bridget Jones is a fan of Colin Firth and of his portrayal of Mr Darcy.

John Lithgow went through a period in the 1980s where he played a scientist in several movies. If it's 1985, and your movie needs a physicist who does not act like a Mad Scientist (with one noteworthy exception), then John Lithgow is your man.

Ray Stevenson seems to be starting to get stuck in a typecast as a hedonistic, laid-back, but still formidable warrior type; In Rome he was Titus Pullo, in Thor he portrayed Volstagg, and in The Three Musketeers 2011, he's the type-codifying Porthos.

... A Half-Human Hybrid created by the villains to join up with the heroes and bring them down from within, but eventually changes sides through The Power of Love and plays a pivotal role in defeating his creators.

Look at Glenn Morshower's filmography. Almost all of his characters have a military rank.

Have a foreign guy in the script? Armand Assante is your man. No matter which country the character is from, Assante will bring foreignness to the role.

Pretty much every role of Henry Winkler aka "Fonzie these days seems to be as an outrageously incompetent lawyer in various sitcoms and movies.

Liam Neeson plays the aged badass with a haunted face and a certain chance of getting killed in his movies. If he doesn't die, he makes other people die in his place. (The last bit can either be about Darkman or Batman Begins)

Vin Diesel is the tough action hero who, appropriately, has something to do with big hulking machines.

Overweight black actresses (such as Mo'Nique and Queen Latifah) are often typecast as the Sassy Black Woman, or as a Mammy type back in the day. Such actresses are often criticized for only choosing stereotypical roles, despite the fact that these roles are often the only ones they can get.

Mo'Nique completely averts this in Precious, and it could very well launch her career into new heights.

Hattie Mc Daniel played so many Mammy maid roles that she noted she would rather play a maid for $700 a week than be a maid for $7 a week.

When Bea Arthur was cast as Dorothy Zbornak in The Golden Girls, the similarities to Maude were noticed immediately and she was asked if she was worried about being typcast. She responded that life was too short to worry about that.

Let's be honest though, this happens to most attractive young actresses who are both really talented and willing to get naked on camera. See also: Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Eva Green, Salma Hayek.

Whenever Marlee Matlin is on screen, the show centers around being deaf. Same goes for Shoshannah Stern.

Marlee's role on The West Wing was mostly unrelated to being deaf. Sometimes.

Alexandra Moen seems to be carving out a niche as "troubled posh woman". (She was Lucy Saxon in "Last of the Time Lords", for those of you who don't know her name).

Actress Lupe Ontiveros estimates that she's played a maid between 150 and 300 times on screen.

Ellen Page is either The Troubled Teen or The Smarty Teen. Or both. Not that there isn't a lot of range in thoseroles. With Inception, she breaks new ground playing the smarty college student which is just a bit older than a teenager. Her roles could also be a Tomboy in general.

Joan Plowright is the ultimate Sweet Old English Lady.

C. C. H. Pounder usually plays some sort of Affably Evil authority figure. This even extends to animated works: she was Amanda Waller on Justice League.

Now subverted with Warehouse13: Mrs. Frederic is definitely an authority figure, but rather than being Affably Evil, she is a gruff, kind of creepy Chief who nevertheless not evil (so far).

Keri Lynn Pratt can never be cast as anything but a variation of The Ditz, due to her comically squeaky voice. A ditzy intern on Brothers and Sisters, ditzy girlfriend Missy on Jack and Bobby, then a ditzy sorority girl in Veronica Marsalbeit a manipulative, lying, blackmailing one. With a voice like that, it seems like there's no way for anyone to take her seriously.

Catalina Saavedra originally refused (angrily) the role of Raquel in The Maid (2009 Chilean film) because she had already played too many maids.

Although her most popular role was as Elliot's mom in E.T., the rest of Dee Wallace's acting career seems to subsist of that of the victim in various horror films, with The Howling, The Hills Have Eyes, Cujo and the remake of Halloween being amoung the most popular.

Subverted in The Frighteners, where she is portrayed as the victim only to change gears halfway through the film to become the villain).

Betty White tends to get typecast in a role and then subverts the typecasting in her next big role. Her role on the Mary Tyler Moore Show was a subversion of her earlier typecasting as a sweet, motherly type. In order to avoid the resulting typecasting as a bitchy, man-hungry character she chose to play the Ditz Rose on Golden Girls rather than the character of Blanche she was offered. She then subverts that typecasting by playing the character of Betty White on Ugly Betty as a Magnificant Bastard who gets the better of the show's antagonist.

Characters played by Mischa Barton usually tend to end up in relationships with other girls, at least briefly. The same is sometimes true for her OC girlfriend Olivia Wilde.

Patrick Stewart has been able to avoid the Trek curse; sure, his other major mainstream role is Professor X in the X-Men film continuity (which, while not a straight "genre" match to Star Trek, certainly is science fiction), but outside of film, he is a very, very respected Shakespearean actor, one of the finest of his generation.

And even in film he has had a number of good roles -- Scrooge comes to mind, as does Henry VII.

Shatner isn't so much typecast in Sci Fi so much as he is typecast as himself. Doesn't seem to bother him though, and he does it well.

Which this PBS-watching son of Trekkies found quite amusing once he was old enough to understand the concept of acting.

Poor DeForest Kelley, on the other hand, jumped from one type of Typecasting (villains in Western movies and shows) to another (he would never do a well-known role again after being cast as Dr. McCoy).

However, he was just about the only major Star Trek cast member who never bitched about it.

In general, non-white actors often face a great deal of difficulty in getting roles that don't play up the fact that they aren't white, and so they are often typecast as "ethnic" characters. It's only been recently that this has started to change. Specific examples can be seen above.